"There's a Criten on your right Alec!" The shout was the first thing to register in Alec Dius’s mind.
The second was the heavy paw that broke clean through his subconsciously raised guard. The flat of his sword slammed into his ribs as the paw continued undeterred by his defence, completing the full swipe and throwing him far back. His back hit the ground first in a painful impact and scraping but giving him the necessary friction and grounding to place his feet underneath himself again when he bounced in the air once more.
His boots dug small trails in the dirt before he came to a stop, stumbling at the lack of backward momentum and nearly falling to a knee as the pain of the strike caught up to his mind. His own cobalt blue hair briefly bobbed down in front of his identically coloured eyes as he stumbled.
"Alec, are you ok?" A feminine voice asked, a robed woman with a silver rosary hanging from her neck looked over at him with a worried gaze.
This young woman was Felicia Smogn, a talented [Saintess] with long white hair pulled up in a fairly loose high ponytail and bright purple eyes. Her body was cloaked in flowing but no less functional religious garb of Solyre, the Goddess that she followed and received strength from.
"Banged up but fine." Alec grunted, watching the Criten warily while shaking his arms out.
The Criten was a strange and somewhat hideous creature. A mixture of bear and reptile with fur and scales interwoven on all four of its legs and pupils typical of a reptile in its eyes instead of the round ones found in mammals.
'Those scales will mess with my blade if I angle any of my strikes wrong, and if it’s too weak it won't even break through them…' Alec thought to himself, blowing some of his hair out of his face.
"Hold it off for just a moment Alec, we'll be right there!" Peter Kroll, the one who had tried to warn him of the creature beforehand, shouted while dodging a swipe from another slightly larger Criten.
Peter was the leader of the party. A man of reasonable stature with spiky red hair and equally red eyes. A man hailed as an up-and-coming legend, even as relatively early into their journey as they currently were.
"Yeah, no problem." Alec muttered, eyeing down the Criten that seemed to be readying itself for another charge.
Inadvertently his gaze drifted a tad below the Beast’s face. The look of hunger and hatred in its eyes practically burned into him as he caught a glimpse of the long, dangerous claws pressed against the ground.
A wince covered Alec's features as he focused his gaze back up on the face of the Criten. His foot slid back in preparation and his longsword shifted into a more defensive position as he acknowledged the power disparity between them.
Because he knew, given the average ranking of a Criten, exactly how dangerous this situation was for him.
Behind him, he could hear the explosions of yet another low-tiered fireball from the fourth and final member of the party, Angelica Kroll, sister of Peter and [High-Sorcerer]. A young woman with somewhat long red hair of the same shade as Peter but with an eye colour a few shades closer to pink.
The Criten burst forward, cutting off all superfluous thoughts from Alec's head as he moved in reply, stepping back and parrying the Beast's wild swipe at his head. A rapid, circular motion that brought his blade around and back down on the side of the beast before he had to back off to avoid the retaliatory strike. The young man clicked his tongue and ran back in quickly, slicing twice across its chest as it reared up and circled around its back to avoid being crushed or mauled.
He was beating it slowly, but he knew that just one mistake would spell the end of this fragile equilibrium between them. His technique was superior but the creature was flat out faster, stronger, and more durable than he was. If he took another attack basically head-on like before…
Another three attacks were deflected and avoided by the young man, his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he continued to slowly but surely leave small cuts and lacerations over it’s furred torso.
"Shit! Alec!" Peter's shout caught Alec's attention, immediately dragged his eyes over towards him, only to meet the eyes of a second, far more injured, Criten charging straight at him.
'Did it get past Peter!? Shit! It's too fast!' He tried to raise his blade to block the attack that he knew was coming, but he wasn't even quick enough to do that.
His blue eyes went a little hazy as the paw of the charging Criten slammed into his unprotected torso. The wind leaving his lungs and the crack of his own ribs resounding in his ears. And a moment later he was flung away once more, hitting the ground and ragdolling as his body and mind struggled to comprehend the multiple points of pain resounding throughout his being. For a few seconds, all he could comprehend was the sheer pain of being unable to breathe.
Yet once that passed, one thing registered in his mind above everything else.
'Peter's…pissed.'
"Felicia! Heal Alec! Leave them to me!" The young man growled, crouching low with his own blade and glaring coldly at the two Critens closing in on the injured adventurer.
Peter’s lips moved but no sound reached Alec’s ears. The young man kicked off the ground and approached in a blur of speed, a glowing rune in a frenzied shape shone over the handguard of his blade before the steel weapon lit up in brilliant orange flames. The blade sliced clean through the two closest arms of both creatures as his feet hit the ground again and dug trenches. Peter slowly slid to a stop just before Alec, turning around back to the Criten by the time that he had done so.
For a brief, literally shining moment the flames surrounding Peter’s sword flared and licked at his hands, getting a pained grimace and flinch from the young man before he shot back towards the Criten. Felicia slid to her knees beside Alec right as their leader entered the fray once more.
“This is very bad Alec. It’ll take a lot of my magic to heal it.”
“S-So…rry…”
“Do not apologise!” Felica glared heatedly at him, pressing her lips together thinly and beginning to weave a string of runes together with talented and dexterous fingers.
The sound of fighting nearby and the glowing lights of Felicia’s rune-weaving washed over his senses and the words of the Saintess echoed in his mind. This had happened because of him, Peter and Angelica had to overextend themselves to take on multiple Iron-tier monsters by themselves because of him. Felicia had to use almost all of her available mana to help him and not the others.
In theory, he wasn’t unlike the others. His Qualification, [Swordmaster], was a highly prestigious, albeit mysterious, qualification just like Felicia’s [Saintess] or Angelica’s [High-Sorcerer]. But his progress had always been slower than that of his friends, ever since they were children. In magic, it had been understandable but the gulf had slowly, ever so hauntingly slowly, expanded over time.
If he compared himself to only Felicia and Angelica these feelings of doubt and self-hatred may not be a thing, or they may have been a whole lot less powerful. However he wasn’t only in the presence of those two ladies, he was also in the presence of Peter Kroll.
In the distance, Peter thrust his sword into the belly of the Criten and flared the flames on his blade, cooking it from the inside out before ripping the blade out of the now very dead monster and letting it slip from his grasp behind him without looking. The blade went clean into the throat of the second Criten trying to sneak up on him, killing it on the spot even as the flames were extinguished from lack of mana.
Peter Kroll, birth-given qualification: [Platinum-Class Warrior].
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XXXxxxXXX
Two hours later
Alec sighed while massaging his shoulder as the party of four, officially dubbed 'Blessed Catalyst', sat at a small, dingy, table in the corner of the tavern they called 'home base' for the night.
While higher ranking adventuring parties that could take more dangerous, and thus better rewarded, quests were often able to buy, create, or otherwise set up their own permanent place of residence. Lower-ranked parties, especially Copper-rank parties like Blessed Catalyst, simply didn’t have the funds to afford such a thing without the connections or backing of nobility or other adventurers.
Neither of which any of the members of Blessed Catalyst had, as a group of four orphans all from the same rundown village in the mountains. So, they were forced, like all other lower-ranked adventurers, to hop from temporary accommodation to temporary accommodation.
“Are you feeling ok, Alec?” Felicia asked with concern etched across her face as she looked into his eyes with wide eyes and pressed together lips.
What she probably didn’t realise she was showing off, in those same actions, were the slight bags under her eyes and the small cracks on her lips. Things that she should have dealt with practically subconsciously, if not for the amount of magic she had, had to use to heal him earlier that day.
“I’m fine, Felicia, really.” He tried to smile, to reassure her that he really was feeling fine.
And while physically that may have been true, emotionally it wasn’t. His guilt eating away at him and denting the sincerity of his smile against his own wishes. Something which may have been noticed by the young Saintess, if her small frown was anything to go by.
“Tch! Ow!” Both of the adventurer’s attention was drawn to the pained hiss of their leader as he smacked his bandaged finger against the mug of juice that he had ordered.
Unfortunately, while 17 may have been an acceptable age to drink in many countries across the Twin-Continents, the same could not be said for the Kingdom of Kairahl, where they currently reside.
“Oh grow up you big baby. Felicia can heal it tomorrow.” Angelica rolled her eyes at her brother's reaction.
“It hurts Angelica!” Peter whined, holding his wrist while acting as if his hand was still actively on fire.
“You did worse with the stove back at the orphanage.” She deadpanned, which only got stronger as he whined louder and rested his forehead on his forearm.
However that only lasted for a few seconds before he gave up the act and straightened back out, this time much more care not to knock his injured extremity against anything as he did so.
“Alright, so Iron-class beasts are still an issue. Today showed that pretty plainly.”
“My healing is still too inefficient.” Felicia sighed, missing the look that Alec shot her. “I need to work on either my mana management or my mana levels in general.”
“Personally I think the issue lay with myself and Peter. While there’s not much he could have done, save for zone the Criten better and run after it once it got past, if I had known a spell to block its path off or even slow it down. None of us would be as exhausted as we all are.” This time it was Angelica who got a surprised look from Alec, though unlike Felicia she at least seemed to notice it and gave him a stern glare while shaking her head in response.
“That’s my bad. It overpowered me for a moment and I was too surprised to stop it. Sorry Alec, sorry Felicia.”
“It’s fine, really. It seems like we all made some mistakes today.” Felicia smiled, getting a small snort from Peter and the barest hint of a smile from Angelica.
Meanwhile, Alec couldn’t stop thinking about the fight. Sure, he acknowledged that each of them had a point. None of them had fought flawlessly in that battle, none of them had been perfect beyond reproach. But if anyone should have had their flaws pointed out, it should have been him. He knew that his friends were nice and considerate. But if this was going to be the way it was if they were going to act as if they were the only problems and not him, the only one of them still ranked in Copper-class, he couldn’t bear to watch when something horrific happened.
Because in this world, with everything going on between the different countries and the monsters and beasts that constantly battled at the borders of man, he knew that eventually, something horrific would happen. And he couldn’t bear to see any of them sad over his passing because he followed them on something he wasn’t prepared to handle or Gods-forbid, something terrible happened to any of them.
‘No. I can’t allow that to happen. Even if drastic actions have to be taken.’ Alec thought to himself, taking a moment to steel his resolve, and then speaking as clearly and confidently as he could.
“Guys, I have an announce- mffggh!?” Alec blinked in surprise while his eyes were blown wide open as Angelica surged forward and placed a hand over his mouth as if sensing what he was about to say.
And considering her intellect, he was pretty certain she actually had a solid idea of his announcement already. Especially when he actually took a moment to look at, and notice, the expression on her face; ashen pale with wide eyes and pursed lips, as if physically fighting to keep her mouth closed.
“Alec, buddy. How about we take a quick moment and-” Angelica spoke up, only to make a small squeaking sound as he grabbed her arm and, as gently as he could get away with, moved her hand off his lips.
“Angelica, I'm sorry.” He murmured, shaking his head.
“Can the two of you clue us in? What’s Alec trying to say?” Peter asked, confused over the expression his sister was making and worried about whatever announcement Alec had in store that could create such an expression on her.
“I wish to resign from Blessed Catalyst.”
“Angelica muffle him again.” Felicia deadpanned, getting a startled yelp from Alex as he backpedalled to avoid Angelica’s free hand from slapping over his mouth.
“You- Why do you want to leave Alec? Did someone say something to you?” Peter asked, his eyebrows furrowing worriedly as he stood up, his hands resting on the surface of the table.
“Wha- No! No one said anything to me.” Alec denied, shaking his head and waving his hands in front of his face.
“Are you certain?” Felicia asked, squinting her eyes at him and leaning a little closer, as if trying to search his face for any hints of deceit.
“Yes. I’m certain. Look, today was a mess.” The blue-haired teen began, running his fingers through his hair on habit.
“That’s hardly your fault Alec. Matured Criten are Iron-rank beasts. You can’t expect to be able to handle one, let alone two, as a Copper-rank.” Angelica pointed out reasonably, making him flinch a little.
‘Even though that’s true…’
“But how long will I be stuck at Copper? When you all move up to Silver? To Gold?” He questioned, shaking his head vehemently. “I can’t keep up with you all. I can’t.”
Something in his voice seemed to keep the arguments of his friends at bay, but he could see the hand of Peter slowly reaching out, as if to try and comfort him.
“The more I lag behind the more danger I'm put in- The more danger you’re all put in.”
“You’re already on the precipice of Iron-rank Alec. I get that today was stressful but you can’t let it shake your resolve.” Angelica tried to remind him, her voice softening a little as she did so.
“But my progress is too slow, Angelica. My injuries today completely broke our formation. Look I just- I’m not trying to- Argh.” He shook his head and frazzled his hair as he tried to get his thoughts straight and put them into proper words.
“Alec. We’re not going to abandon you just because your progress has slowed down. I know that with some help we can catch you up to where we are. We can even take some lower-ranking quests if our safety is what you’re worried about.” Peter suggested, a sincere look on his face as he saw clearly how worked up this was making his best friend.
“But you don’t deserve that. None of you do. Your progress, your potential, shouldn’t be stunted just because of me.”
“That’s a stupid thing to think.” Felicia said bluntly, taking a small sip of her drink, though the shine in her eyes betrayed her cool and collected tone. “Our potential won’t be stunted just because we took it slow for a little bit to help our friend.”
“That’s- I worded that wrong.” Alec said, trying to keep his resolve strong in the face of the merciless siege machine that was his friends’ arguments.
“Then what is the correct wording, Alec? Because this seems like a lot of stress that has just led to a decision you might not have thought through.” Angelica diagnosed, shooting her brother and Felicia a look when they opened their mouths to speak once more.
For a moment the table of four was silent as the three of them, at Angelica’s whim, gave Alec the opportunity to try and work through his words, his feelings, and his plan. He tried to grasp onto that logic that he had felt his argument had when he had first thought of it but it was nowhere to be found, destroyed in the logic of his friends' own arguments. He tried to find another line of logic or rationale but that only led him back around in loops.
Until, finally, Alec realised what this was about. The psychological diagnosis that Angelica had given him moments earlier shifted his mind down a different path.
“Look. This decision…it's rash and emotional and sorta selfish, I won’t lie. But I really, really think that I need this. I’m never going to feel comfortable putting you in danger or ruining your progress through the ranks just to try and bring me back up to level. We’ve been together since we were kids, always the four of us, and I love you guys. But it’s precisely because of that, that I need to put some distance between all of us. I need to grow on my own, outside of Blessed Catalyst.”
“Alec…” Angelica frowned, her eyes shining a little.
“I see..” Felicia mumbled, taking another sip of her drink.
“That’s really how you feel, huh?” Peter mumbled, letting his head drop to stare at the tabletop that he still leant on.
“It- It really is.” Alec nodded resolutely, his face set hard and firm.
For a few brief seconds, it was once again silent at the table of Blessed Catalyst. The thoughts and emotions of all four members churned and jumbled around inside their heads. Alec’s thoughts stuck squarely on how he could convince the three of them to let him go with as little fanfare as possible. Both of the girls thought trying to figure out how to get it through to Alec that he wasn’t a problem to them, that his slow progress didn’t matter so long as he stayed. And the thoughts of Peter…
“Alright.”
Alec jolted back a half step, having not thought that his best friend would ever be the first to agree, though the reactions of Angelica and Felicia were a little more…extreme.
“Peter what the hell!?”
“The madness has spread. I’ll prepare a purification.”
“Woah woah! Calm down! There’s no need for a purification.” Peter said hurriedly, holding a hand up to each girl.
“Then explain.” Angelica glared at her brother while leaning into his personal space.
“Look. This is something that Alec clearly wants right? I don’t want him leaving either but I don’t think we can really, in good conscience, keep him with us. Do you?”
“Well- That’s true…” Angelica admitted reluctantly, averting her eyes from her brother as she leant back.
“I suppose.” Felicia mumbled, clearly unhappy about the entire situation.
“So, if you really, really think this is what you need, Alec. We’ll let you go. On one condition.” Peter said, holding up one bandaged finger seriously.
“And that is?”
“That you eventually come back to us. Whether that's in a week, a month, a year or more. You’ll eventually rejoin Blessed Catalyst.”
Alec couldn’t help but crack a grin at his friend's condition, which was matched by the red-haired teen as he held his hand out towards Alec.
“Do we have an agreement?”
“Of course we do. I was always planning on coming back.” He said softly, grasping the bandaged hand of Peter in as firm a handshake as he could get away with, without injuring him.
“A little extra insurance never hurts.” Peter snickered, though there was a slight wetness beginning to develop along the edges of his eyes.
“So I guess this is it, huh?” Alec mumbled, only to groan as both Angelica and Felicia struck his sides, both young women wrapping their arms around him.
“Not yet.”
“We need to say goodbye too, first.”
He could tell that both girls were on the verge of crying, which he could already feel was beginning to make his own eyes tear up in response.
“I guess a goodbye wouldn’t be complete without a hug.” Alec chuckled weakly, trying to keep his own tears in check as he felt both Angelica’s and Felicia’s arms tighten slightly.
“Room for one more?” Peter asked, walking around the table with his arms wide open.
Only to promptly be dragged into the hug as an arm from all three teens whipped out to grab him and drag him into it. A loud, cheerful laugh left him as he wrapped his thicker arms around all three of them at once.
“Best of luck to you, Alec.”
“Yeah. Best of luck to you all too.” He whispered.
And if the four of them stayed in that four-person hug for longer than was probably necessary, it was never brought up. A moment of peace that all four of them were more than happy to partake in before the four of them became three.
A moment purely between four childhood friends.